class that they've already taken again. >> one thing i found intriguing was the comment of the student. i don't know if it's something that's happening, but it would be interesting to do some kind of group with the student to find out directly with them what they're feeling, you know. because sometimes it's something that's even hard to articulate or they can't even measure -- it can't be measured, you know, the way we measure things. i think it would be interesting to get their direct input. >> mr. chair and supervisor olague, coleman youth are open and willing to participate in that. >> thank you. >> thank you. supervisor cohen. >> okay. i'm sorry, i didn't catch your name again. >> niva walker. >> niva, that's right. you talked about credit recovery. i'm under the impression that we had a summer program, certainly last summer on credit recovery. do we have one this summer as

well? >> yes, we did. >> we did. how would you evaluate that program? >> we are waiting for the district to release the data on the completion of rate for the students. we have not been able to get that yet. so, that's something we have to follow-up on. >> have you had a chance [speaker not understood] also new to the committee, have you had a chance to look at the data from last summer? >> yes and yes. and i can't tell you that. right now i have to -- what is your specific question? >> it's not necessarily a question. gist it's more of a stamp. to the best of my knowledge, i see [speaker not understood] in the chamber. he might be able to speak to it a little bit because i think he helped run some of the program, the credit recovery. but it was a successful summer program. this year, this exact body heard the report -- the data from last summer because i agree with you. we have to -- if you don't make it the first time, you have to give a fair opportunity to get back in there and do it again.

so >> so, mr. chair and coleman to that point, not all a through g courses are offered during the summer. there is a problem with that. if you are not keeping track of what classes are offered in the summer program and what classes students need to make sure they get access to those classes, there is a [speaker not understood]. >> you heard both presentations, one from the san francisco unified school district and the other one from dcyf. could you give me your gut reaction or some -- if you can -- or you can give me some kind of -- some thoughts that you were thinking as you were listening to some of the data you presented today. >> yes, mr. chair, and supervisor cohen. there is actually data the school district provided is promising the children for tomorrow, right. we're dealing with a crisis of high school students today and the issue is they did not present any recommendations on how to resolve the issues that are facing us today. and, so, when we get to

figuring out how we can get the school district to not just also prepare students at kindergarten and the rest of the elementary grades, but also focusing on the students that were not given adequate education that they deserved yesterday, then i can talk about that. >> so, you probably know what the numbers were looking like 10 years ago as i was. thank you, mr. chair. that's all i have. >> colleagues, i'd like to turn it over to public comment. i think it's really important for us to hear from members of the public. so, i have a number of speaker cards that i'm going to read. but any member of the public who would like to speak on items 1 and 2, i would ask that you come forward. so, the speaker cards are from sharon hewett, robert woods, lilly ratcliff, jamil patterson, peter alexander, and ace washington.

please come up. you each have two minutes. and we also have shaman walton. hi, i'm [speaker not understood], and i did not fill out a card. i do apologize. one thing we're talking about solutions. first i wanted you to picture this. my kids' friends, when i encourage them to go back to school after they graduate, say, hey, i'm not going to live beyond 21. what for? there's hopelessness. solution, maybe we need cameras in the classrooms. maybe we need to have accountability that teachers, the mayor need to be held accountable financially with the rates of failure. we have a society full of people. we need to be treated as human beings. i think we need books, we need black teachers. we need books that deal with

historical contributions of blacks. i think we need subject matter of blacks. i think that the biggest thing is these kids don't feel cared about. they don't feel like they're a part of anything. they get access to guns more than they get to the school book. i think we don't take into consideration the parent involvement, the fact that they have financial struggles as well. i think that needs to be looked at. another solution is, well, we have these kids today who cannot earn or graduate, see if there can be a work and learn at the same time, you know, economic viability. there's mental health. god, i have so many other suggestions that i guess i'll have to e-mail you. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. willie ratcliff, san francisco daily newspaper. and i'm certainly glad that

this hearing is being held. i've heard a lot of good things. it just seems like nobody talks about the real problem. it's cause and effect. how much money does the african-american, latino community, the samoan community get out of the capital project? what is the unemployment rate of the same people that we're talking about? where do you spend your money? because you can't wait till a kid gets to school then all of a sudden he's going to do something and they come up with no money in their house, home. for the parents to help kid. and that's the city and the school district. take a look at how much money that went towards communities that we are talking about. it's cause and effect. if you don't put the money out there in those communities,

look what happened out at the school, tearing down the willie brown academy. no blacks. and then you get out here and talk about everything else, but cannot talk about the real problem. the real problem is it's discriminatory and exploitation and lockout of those communities. the black community, the latino community and of course the -- everybody that's locked out. we need to deal with that. now, give me the statistics on that. i heard statistics on everything else. i haven't heard one person mention what really happens. and how are you going to turn it around? because those communities are continually locked out. you're not going to be able to do nothing about the problem. that's my problem. so, i'd like to see you all -- >> thank you. getting ready to build a

school out there? >> thank you, mr. ratcliff. next speaker, please. thank you. >> that's helpful. [speaker not understood] from the bayview. i think the first thing we have to look at like this is it's not to harp on the board of education and not to harp on you guys for not coming together. the bottom line is just some things that came up here. first, how many know where the naacp office is? you see what i'm talking about? so, the naacp is a vehicle [speaker not understood] on tracks any more. second thing, how many programs out there in the bayview? >> how many what? how many beacon programs in the bayview? thank you. i don't want the bell to get me. i work with dr. gray in the k through 12 program in the bayview at hoover knows.

i was stunned when i found out these kids didn't have pencils and paper. so, what we did along with angie, we solicited paper from paper companies that they dropped off there so they would have paper. if you want to call something a shame, you call that a shame. these are students that go to school in san francisco that don't have pencils and papers and pens. now, some of the teachers were going in their own pockets. but in order to bring something together, i think what has to happen is you need to go out there and visit the center. how many of you have been out there to visit? i know, the same thing that one that came up in the back. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. good evening, my name is robert woods and i'm with the san francisco black human rights council. i'm an architect by education and i'm teaching ged math to those who have dropped through

the crack. and through my experience in teaching them, i find that if you don't like the people you're serving, you cannot deliver a positive message to them. and that's the problem that i'm running into, and i have students who came into the class and they were afraid to open their mouth. and now i got them hollering answers colina cross the room. they don't care who knows. they're trying. * clean across the room. and this is the thing i try to get them to build up their self-esteem in the classroom. if i can get them to do that, i can get them to learn the math and they have been getting it and getting it quick. now, you asked -- supervisor

cohen, you asked when did this start, when did this education drop off. it started before you were born. it's been happening a long time. so, when you said -- when you said it takes a healthy community, that means working. healthy -- if you don't work, you don't eat. and, so, this is what we're trying to do in bayview hunters point. i come here with a message for you to appeal to your better wisdom and your judgment because that's what [inaudible]. >> thank you very much, sir. thank you, sir. >> thank you very much. next speaker. i'm even too old to really address this because i'm over 10 years removed.

but i can remember when tupac died and one of my cool teachers put "we love you, tupac" a picture of him in the class. and the principal told her to remove it. and that just points to the disconnect. i mean, instead of trying to get me to understand shakespeare first, who i might not like or don't care about, try to show me how writing a thesis is equivalent to writing a good song. you've got to meet the youth where they're at. and what i see from the school system, i don't even see them budging that way. and writing a song is very -- it's very similar to writing a thesis. and also i think this city -- this country should be a bilingual country. you know, the people who argue about that, it would be

trivial. we should speak english. because what i notice, i remember watching a program and the youth, he was 14, he said i don't want to learn a foreign language. but he's out there in the streets. if you go to prison, hopefully not, knowing a foreign language can save your life. or if you want to do something else with your life, knowing a foreign language can help you make more money. so, i think we need to explore other angles. we need to be more career orientated because now we're in the technology age and i don't even think the school system is there. so, that solution right there, you see kids making videos all the time. so, you know, we need to explore -- you need to be open minded and i don't have enough time to really convey my point so, thank y'all. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. with gratitude for everybody that's here, it's a beautiful day. and regarding the illusory

nature of our striving, there is no national debt. it is base on deception, murder and trees on and should not be acknowledged. the european, chinese and asian communities around the world have far superior education. home schooling should be seriously considered. american students have long been taught to be subservient spectators to a system gone insane. roosevelt called america the great experiment. * eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex which is why most of our youth end up in the military or prisons. adults would now be wise to implement 20-hour workweeks with massive guarding programs based on the 14 acre south los angeles urban gardens which would provide work he for everybody forever. and if martin luther king saw the promised land, where do you think we are? i am that i'm and i am here. i speak the truth i've got no fear.

one man that's in prison is going to be executed on october 3rd in pennsylvania. his name is terry williams. you should look the case up. and, so, i here with all my heart put forth the message to law enforcement nationwide to refuse the execution of terry williams and also to make sure that dr. jessie mcdonald, regardless of how his case comes out, is not sent back to prison because our law enforcement is a very powerful tool and our sheriffs are the number one authority in the country, not the feds. and, so, it is given that the promised land will be found by the mystical magical beautiful path of a 40-day general strike. it is time for the students and the women to lead this nation with a beautiful 40-day general strike where we spend time with our families, our gardens, and put this corruption in d.c. on down from the bankers and all these greedy corrupt people to their knees and know that

california is the most powerful state and we are the ones chosen to lead the way. blessings. >> thank you, sir. (applause) >> next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors, commissioners. shaman walton, [speaker not understood]. just wanted to touch on what supervisor cohen was referring to earlier. in the summer of 2011 ycd was funding from the shipyard project provided a program for rising 10th graders that failed algebra and english during the regular school year. 74 of those students failed both classes. we got 70 them to pass both classes. 58 with a c or higher. this past year working closely with 100% college prep with funding from dcyf, we were able to duplicate the program. this summer at two school sites, wallingberg and thurgood marshall, 102 students, providing tutorial, same exposure, providing the same job skills and life training, step ends for students with

similar outcomes. we just got the grade. we're still working on that data. i did present a final supplemental report to dcyf but i didn't bring the report today. but we do have that information as well. the regular basic credit recovery program that niva was probably speaking on from coleman was actually at philip burton the same year we did the program at balboa. in fact, some of those students also participated in our program as well. i know we've heard a lot about the issues that are plaguing our community. i just wanted to talk a little about some of the solutions as we move forward. one of the main things is really exposure, exposure, exposure. students really want to know how does my learning today relate to my future success. you heard a lot from our community in terms of school to career opportunities, development projects and dollars that are coming into communities because of that. there needs to be a possible option, a viable option where our students understand that the things around them will

also provide them opportunities for goals. and, so, thank you for your time. i have more comments, but i felt i had to respond to supervisor cohen's statements earlier. so, thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. good evening, ladies and gentlemen. my name is ace washington better known as ace on the case. but i'm here to just really extend my appreciation to my supervisor of the fifth district. i think she's done something here in the history of supervisors that caused me to go up and down the stairs three times today three committees her name is on and it happens to be about african americans. first i want to give you a hand for what you're doing here. you're doing a wonderful job. i'm not paid to say this because if you did something, i'd be telling you like i tell all the rest of the people. right now i am here to say that my name is ace and i'm the african-american of migration czar outside of city hall. i have been there through the

unfinished agenda of migration and all of it. lee knows that and everyone else in the city knows that. i'm here to proclaim that i'm the czar. and everything, all five issues, education, economic development, all those issues are something that's been passed down under, hasn't been taken care of. i'm glad to see the education part of this is coming forth because without the ebbv indication we cannot have nothing. i'm here to say and ed lee, hear me loud and clear because it starts from room 200. everything that -- all these boards, they're listening right now. mr. ed lee, this a-c-e and i'm telling you i'm on the case and we're going make sure that we implement this outmigration in my lifetime for my three kids. the thing about it, why i'm so adamant, ladies and gentlemen, i've been doing this for 20 years. but i have children that have children that have children. so, therefore, i'm here representing three cs. it is sort of historical. yes, i'm 58 years old, but i have great grand kids and all

be damned that i've been here all these 20 years and when i'm in the position to help out their generation, they can say pa-pa helped us. i want to be the pa-pa for all my african-american community because it seems like our leadership is in a coma. everybody is sleep. somebody mentioned naacp. wake them up. ace -- >> thank you, mr. washington. (applause) >> next speaker, please. and by the way i have another speaker card for sharika madison. anyone else who would like to speak that wants to come up, please come up. thank you. thank you. good evening, supervisors and commissioners. my name is [speaker not understood] madison and i am the executive director of parents of public schools in san francisco. i'm honored to serve and work on behalf of all the parents across the city in our network, but i'm also the mother of an african-american son, and i'm a former educator of some of the brightest children that i've ever met at willie brown academy. all of our children are

brilliant. we know this. and i would like to thank the elected leaders and community leaders who convened this hearing this evening. you know, i worry not only about the well-being of my former students who are now freshmen in high school, but i also worry about their parents and how well equipped they are to support their children throughout their now high school journey. as studies have documented, a key component to student success are strong school family partnership and solid parent involvement. now, as the powers that be determine whether or not a task force is ultimately convened on this very important matter, i implore that you mandate parent representation within this group and a parent education component on the overall matter. there are a wealth of parents facing organizations in the city, magic coleman, parents for public schools and a number

of others. please use us as content experts. as you continue to investigate this matter addressing academic achievement, opportunities for african americans, youth and other target groups as well. thank you. >> thank you very much. (applause) >> next speaker, please. hi, there. [speaker not understood] shackle ford. i'm with the san francisco youth commission. right now i'm speaking as myself. we haven't made a formal comment on this. we all have our own joint educational committee with the sac and youth commissioners who are interested in education and they're very interested in this issue. you'll probably hear from us at some point. but i just wanted to bring up for a second the accessibility of these programs because having more doesn't really mean figure if they're not accessible. at my school you have to pay $60 for. so, if you want to take an internet or credit course,

you're told you have to pay $60. * anything i'm sure there is a service that lets low-income youth do this without pay. i'm not sure if someone in the school district can do that. a lot of it has to be done with outreach to parents and students to tell them they don't necessarily have to pay a huge amount of money to make up their credits because public education is supposed to be free. thank you. >> thank you. actually, commissioner, did you have a question? >> mr. armentraut, can we get follow-up on that? this is the first time i've heard students had to pay to receive credit recovery course. >> we'll make sure we follow-up. next speaker, please. hello, my name is brenda barrels and i have like four grand kids that are in the public school system. and i have one of my grand sons that started off the first four five years of school with straight as. and after that i don't know what happened in the following

year in the sixth year, in the sixth grade, but everything fell apart. he doesn't want to go to school. now he's in high school. he doesn't want to go to school at all. we can't get him to go to school. so, something happened within the schools that turned this kid who loved to learn, was an honor student, and turned him into somebody who everybody walking on the street would be like the community problem. so, this is very important. i didn't even know thises what going to be here today, but i'm glad i found out about it. and to me one of the things, discrimination is a problem in the schools. and until there is a really seriously dealt with, until you admit that it's a problem and really deal with it, more and more african-american kids are going to have this problem. because many of them don't feel wanted in the schools. they don't feel like they're put in the schools where it might be a few scattered black

kids amongst a group of another race. and they're treated like they're not wanted. and they feel like they're not wanted and they behave as if they're not wanted. so, to me money is not the only problem to the solution. it's where the money is spent. and i think kid have to be much more involved in the design of their school system. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon. my name is carol tatum and i came to san francisco from mobile, alabama in 1955. so, i went to james dylan. i went to balboa. i went to san francisco state, and sometimes i went to city college. and i didn't too bad. but in the '80s i worked on 3rd street and in the summer you

have young people come in to work. and i had a difficult time trying to get them to do the things that i asked. and, so, i kept trying to figure out, what is wrong here? so, i decided that i would ask each child to write an essay as to why you want to be here. and what i found was that some of them would write an entire page, it would not have one punctuation mark in it. some of them could not spell, could not construct sentences. so, supervisor cohen, you ask how long. that was in the '80s. so, what we have today is children who are the children of the children from that time. so, this thing has continued. somebody mentioned the prison pipeline today. that is very real and it is

very scary. and we jail a lot of young black men in san francisco. $50,000 a year it costs to keep a person in prison, plus the cost to the family economically. transportation to visit, the commissary, the telephone, the e-mail, all of that. and, so, it is a crime. we're all guilty. we're guilty of where we have arrived with our children in this public school system. it didn't start yesterday. it has been going on -- we've been talking about this -- and i came here [speaker not understood]. now we're down to 5 to 6% and people in the public and subsidized housing -- >> thank you, ma'am. that says something about the economic health of the african americans in the citiful [speaker not understood]. >> thank you very much. next speaker. (applause) good afternoon, my name is [speaker not understood]. i am the director of homey.

we're going to speak on a different item, but i want to address the joint committee here. i just want to take this problem maybe from the other end and just say that 80% of the men that are in the cdc don't have high school diplomas. and they don't have geds. and, so, and the ones that are coming out of prison that are 18 to 24, i've got some stats here, 80% don't have, like i said, 80% don't have a ged or high school diploma. 75% are unemployed. 20% are diagnosed with mental health illness, and 80% have substance abuse problems. so, we're looking at it from one end, but i just kind of want to make everybody -- enlighten you on the other end. what happens is that 75% of the people who commit crimes are coming out of prison, violent

parole. things are happening on the other end in terms of violence prevention. so, i think in order for to us really, really shall -- this is a key for violence prevention, not just for education. if we can address this issue, this a through g trying to get young people into college, trying to get them a high school diploma, we reduce this number and we reduce the risk number for violence prevention, we could get them off the street. i want to emphasize this is a key position. keep in mind this is really important factor not just for education, but also for violence prevention. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. alfaro. next speaker, please. (applause) hello, good afternoon. my name is [speaker not understood], [speaker not understood] for change. i want to say that since i've been kind of involved in community, it seems like we are